Date

Sep 18, 1978

Description

West German talking points reviewed the divisions in Bonn on the nuclear issue; the government had “not yet reached definitive consensus.” Some officials believed that the “clear and unequivocal wording” in Protocol I barred nuclear weapons use even though it did not “contain a prohibition of specific weapons.” Suggesting that under the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties an interpretive statement was insufficient, a “clear reservation” would be “indispensable” at the time of ratification because otherwise, West Germany could be bound to “forbid its nuclear allies to stockpile nuclear warheads in its territory or to make any first use of [them] in its territory,” and that could “seriously jeopardize NATO strategy.”

Because several NATO partners had argued that reservations would amount to an admission that the Protocol does, in fact, “regulate the use of nuclear weapons,” Bonn proposed a statement that could be understood either as “a substantive reservation or only as an understanding”: “the rules established by this protocol have been designed with a view to conventional weapons and were not intended to have any effect on and do not regulate or prohibit the use of nuclear weapons.” An alternative “formula” was a statement made specifically with reference to Article 49 (Definition of Attacks and Scope of Application).

Source

RG 59, Department of State Records, George H. Aldrich Records, box 6, Human Rights in Armed Conflict 1978

Document published in following posting(s):

Humanitarian Law of War: The U.S.-NATO Review of Additional Protocol I, 1978-1986

Sep 21, 2023

Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts, “Talking points on statements to be made upon ratification of Protocol I,” 18 September 1978